VOLUME 112 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2007

Dorsey band and whenever he was in New York and we with off-key and off-ternpo piano and vocals. were playing there, or out here at the Palladium, he’d They caused a mild sensation with both musi­ always come to see the band. On one of those visits, he cians and fans. told me and the Pipers that he was forming this record company and and when we ever left T ommy he ’ d like BBJ: Tell us about the Jonathan and Darlene to talk to us about coming with the record company as recordings. a quartet. He’d like to have me do some solo work, too. JS: That was a good parlor trick, to put it on with Several months after we left Tommy we did come back other records and have this sound start coming out here to California and got in touch with John. He out. People would just look at each other, and they was as good as his word and signed us to Capitol didn’t know whether to say anything or not, and some Records which was a very new company then. It was listeners were perfectly happy with it. a wonderful place to work because the whole thing was run by strictly musicians. BBJ: How did the Jonathan and Darlene idea come about? BBJ: When you left Capitol and moved to Colum­ bia, was it an emotional move? JS: For years at friend’s houses or little get- togethers, Paul had this silly version of JS: In a way it was except by that time I was so used STARDUST he used to do just for laughs. There was to Paul (Weston, of course) that I wanted to a Columbia Record convention down in and continue working with him and I had it in my contract one night after the meetings they all went into a little bar that if he left the record there and the piano player was pretty much a copy of company I could go too. Jonathan Edwards. After the piano player packed up When he went to Colum­ and left, Paul sat down and played that goofy version of bia, very shortly thereafter ST ARDUST that he ’ d been doing for years out here for I went to Columbia too. fun, and a couple of the guys from Columbia said, “You’ve got to make an album.” Paul thought they BBJ: How long did you were kidding, but they thought it was pretty dam funny and and pretty wonderful. work together before you made it a permanent On the way back on the plane he got cold feet and union? thought: “Well, I need a partner on this; I can’t do the whole thing.” That’s when Darlene came into being. JS: Oh, we were Darlene started because of songs I’ve had to record friends for quite a few years before we really from time to time I really thought were pretty terrible got serious about each other. We were on oppo­ songs. At the end of the record date if we had a few site coasts most of the time and we’d see each minutes, the musicians in the band had an equal opinion other two or three times a year if I’d come out to record of the song and thought it ought to be given the or he’d come east to record, but we were on opposite treatment it deserved. The guys would then play it real coasts for so long. We didn’t really get to know each straight and I would sing it bad. That was where other in a romantic sense until the late ‘40s when I Darlene came from and when Jonathan and Darlene brought my radio show out here to California. Paul was hitched up together the result was five albums. the conductor so we started seeing each other seriously. We were good friends for a long time before we were Daughter Amy Weston sings in the romantically involved. area and son Tim Weston manages Corinthian Records, a label with a catalog of , For those who don ’t know or have forgotten, Paul Weston and Jo Stafford recorded some purposely Paul Weston and Jonathan and Darlene albums. terrible albums as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards Jo Stafford will be 91 on November 12,h.

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